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The previously announced integration of Showtime into Paramount+ draws closer as the company reports its first-quarter fiscal earnings. Paramount+ with Showtime is set to launch in the third quarter.
While the integration is anticipated to generate around $700 million in future annual expense savings, which Paramount announced last quarter, it also resulted in a programming charge of $1.7 billion in Q1.
Paramount+ gained 4.1 million subscribers, bringing the total to 60 million, up from 56 million subs in Q4 2022. The company attributed the global subscriber growth to its robust content library, such as “Star Trek: Picard,” “1923,” “Tulsa King,” “Mayor of Kingstown,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Teen Wolf: The Movie” and the NFL Playoffs.
“In connection with our plan to integrate Showtime into Paramount+ and initiatives to rationalize and right-size our international operations to align with our streaming strategy and close or globalize certain of our international channels, during the first quarter of 2023, we reviewed our content portfolio and determined that we would not use certain content on our platforms,” the company wrote in its letter to shareholders.
“Accordingly, we recorded programming charges, which were comprised of impairment charges for content removed from our platforms or abandoned, development cost write-offs, and contract termination costs,” it added.
Paramount also reported a $1.1 billion loss and revenue of $7.3 billion, missing analyst expectations of $7.42 billion.
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